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SOCIAL CONSERVATION 
tribution to the conservation of group life will require a 
short explanation.! 
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Permanence of Locality 
The first and most obvious factor which contributes to 
the preservation of the group unity is the permanence of 
the locality or of the soil on which it lives. The state, the 
city, and numerous other associations owe their persistence 
first of all to this abiding substratum. This permanence 
of the locality alone is not sufficient to guarantee the pres- 
ervation of the group, but it forms an important contribu- 
tion. It is of a physical character, while the life of the 
group is of a psychical character. But it functions as a per- 
manent point of attachment. Permanence of locality, how- 
ever, is only one factor leading to the preservation of group 
life, and it fulfils this function only for special groups. 
There are a great many associations which are entirely 
independent of any attachment to a definite locality. 
The most characteristic example of this function of the 
permanence of the locality for the persistence of the group 
is seen in the case of the feudal state. That state as a par- 
ticular kind of association of human beings derived its 
permanence from the indestructibility of its soil. The in- 
habitants were subject to the authority of the state be- 
cause they were immediately attached to the soil. It was 
in and through the soil that the unity of the feudal state 
existed and persisted. 
1 Soz., pp. 494-97. 2 See Book II, chapter iv. 
* Soz., p. 498. In a modified form, this theoretical attachment to the soil is 
still one of the basic characteristics of the state. It is still a territorial organiza- 
tion. Since the feudal period, however, different functional groups have differ- 
entiated from the territorial group. This gives the modern state an entirely dif- 
ferent aspect. The recent literature on the pluralistic state is in the last instance 
but a subsequent justification of this process of differentiation. See Book II, 
chapter vi.